


The Meaning of Red

by rage_quitter



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Hanzo and Jesse are married and sappy and cute, Like five or six years after modern canon, M/M, OC is their daughter guess where she got her name from, Post-Recall, Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, lots of fluff, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 12:00:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10898937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rage_quitter/pseuds/rage_quitter
Summary: McCree is used to getting woken up by loud noises in the morning. But nowadays, it's rarely alarms and bullets. He definitely prefers waking up to the sounds of his husband and their daughter.





	The Meaning of Red

**Author's Note:**

> theres like .1 angst in here. other than that is just cute and happy. maybe ill write more of this?

McCree woke up to the clattering of dishes.

Of things to wake up to, it wasn’t at the bottom of the list. He was warm, sprawled out in his comfortable bed, in his comfortable home, completely uninjured. 

He was, however, alone. It wasn’t unusual for Hanzo to already be awake by the time McCree cracked open his eyes, but he liked lazy, sleepy mornings with his husband.

But the dishes in the other room were a little concerning.

With a groan he forced himself up and made a beeline for the restroom. He frowned at his reflection, raked his fingers through his messy hair a bit, and tugged on the ridiculously fluffy Dallas Cowboys bathrobe he’d gotten from Genji as a joke Christmas gift. The only things either of them knew about football were whatever Commander Reyes would shriek as he watched the game when they had down time.

McCree shuffled out of the bedroom and peeked into Gabrielle’s room. Her bed was empty. Had he slept in that late?

He backtracked and grabbed Peacekeeper from the locked drawer of the bedside table. He and Hanzo both were far too paranoid to go far from their weapons, even if they were mostly safe now. 

He tucked the gun in his pocket for the moment and wandered back out. Past Gabrielle’s room, through the living room, hesitating before ducking his head around the corner to the kitchen.

Hanzo stood in boxers and a flannel shirt he’d stolen from McCree, hair loose, a look of the utmost concentration on his face as he held a small girl up to the counter. She was oh-so-carefully spooning whipped cream into McCree’s favorite red mug. 

“This is the most imporint part,” she was saying matter of factly. “You can’t add too much. Then it’s just whip cream!”

“And that is not very healthy,” Hanzo agreed.

She plopped another spoonful in the mug. “Okay! Done!”

“Is that the perfect amount?” Hanzo asked.

She nodded. “Yeah! Where’s the sim-- the simo-- the simnim?”

“The cinnamon? To sprinkle on top, of course. You clever girl.” Hanzo pressed a kiss to her hair and set her down on the floor. “Wait just a moment and I’ll--” he turned and stopped, seeing McCree watching the two of them with a big smile. 

Gabrielle turned around and gave a loud gasp. She ran over to him with her hands outstretched. “No, you gotta go sleep!” she exclaimed. 

McCree laughed and glanced at the clock on the stove. “Sweetheart, ain’t I slept enough? It’s already eight. You’re a little early bird this morning.”

“You’re not ‘llowed!”

“It’s a secret,” Hanzo explained with a wink. 

“Ohhhhh, I gotcha,” McCree said. He crouched down to kiss Gabrielle on the forehead. “I’ll go back to bed, pumpkin, okay?”

She nodded. McCree stood up and blew Hanzo a kiss as well. Hanzo rolled his eyes with a smile. “Go wait, Jesse. It will not be long.”

“Don’t keep me waitin’ for my two favorite people,” he sang as he strolled out. He hesitated and peeked back in. “Where’s Clint?”

“Already outdoors,” Hanzo replied. “And Soba is sleeping on the coffee table again.”

McCree shook his head. “I’ll dust it off later. When is Genji coming to get his darn cat again? She sheds like nothin’ else.”

“Next week, when he and Lucio are on break from his tour. You like her.”

“She’s cute. Y’know, maybe we should--”

“Papi! Go away!”

McCree barked a laugh and raised his hands in defeat at the three year old glaring him down. “Alright, alright! Banished from my own kitchen!”

Hanzo shook his head as McCree ambled out. He spotted the massive ball of black fur indeed curled up on the coffee table, her tail lazily waving off the side. Where the hell Genji had found that giant cat, he’d never know, but she was the most affectionate cat he had ever met in his life. At least she didn’t scratch the furniture.

As he headed back to his room, he contemplated that thought. What an usual concern for him. In his forty years, only now was that his everyday worry. His husband’s brother’s cat clawing his couch, or their Shiba chewing on their daughter’s stuffed animals, or using the wrong detergent in the laundry. 

It was a far cry from his life hardly a decade ago, a wanted man wandering the Chihuahuan desert, a gun for hire, getting used to a metal arm and fleeing the lingering gang members that still wanted him dead. 

Even from five years ago, the reformation of Overwatch, with every day being a terrible risk. Between Talon, the resurging omnic threat, the god AI, and the UN itself… 

They were lucky they’d found a way to shut down the god AI. Overwatch was golden again, though not quite as… influential as before. It was something more for show, rather than politics. A scattered group that came together to protect the world when they were needed, like the Avengers. 

McCree still preferred the classic Avengers to the remakes. Hanzo thought superhero movies were ridiculously overdramatic.

McCree took a minute to put on his arm. It lit up to life and he flexed the fingers, hardly thinking about it anymore. The sensors mimicking nerves felt like static for a second as it automatically calibrated before it went back to feeling normal. 

He spent a little time texting Genji, who was up late on the other side of the world. He gave a status report on his cat and asked how Lucio was doing. The musician was one of Genji’s favorite subjects to talk about, and he happily gushed with lots of emojis.

When he heard a shrill little giggle and the clinking of dishes (much less concerning than the loud clattering he’d woken up to) he told Genji he’d have Hanzo call later and wished Lucio good luck with his next show. Genji replied with a few winky faces. McCree rolled his eyes and set his phone down.

Gabrielle in first with the mug clutched tightly in her tiny hands. Hanzo followed, a beautiful smile on his face and a tray in his hands.

“Well, now, what is all this?” McCree asked. 

“Breakfast in bed!” Gabrielle chirped happily, offering the mug. “Coffee!”

“She put in the sugar and whipped cream on her own,” Hanzo said proudly. “Did not spill a thing.”

McCree took it with a smile. “What a talented girl you are,” he praised. 

Hanzo moved with his usual grace as he set the tray on the bed. There was toast, eggs, bacon, hash browns. A real, hearty, all-American meal, but he could see the little touches Hanzo put in. 

“I made toast!” Gabrielle said, climbing up on the bed to sit between Mccree’s knees. “And bacon!”

“She helped trim it. I didn’t let her near the hot pan,” Hanzo whispered. 

“I thought as much. You’re always careful.” McCree reached up to cup the back of Hanzo’s head with one arm. He started to pull him down for a kiss, but then as a second thought covered Gabrielle’s face with his other hand. She giggled and gripped his metal fingers, knowing full well that her fathers were kissing. 

It was chaste, but full of affection. McCree smiled into it and teasingly swept his finger beneath the collar of his shirt. 

“Okay, you,” Hanzo scolded gently, pulling back. McCree shook his head, hearing the warning subtext and grinning, unashamed. He removed his hand from his daughter’s face and ruffled her soft dark hair.

“So what is all this about?” McCree asked, taking a sip of his coffee (black aside from the sugar, how he preferred, and he appreciated the touch of cinnamon, even if the whipped cream clung to his facial hair).

“We can’t just do something nice for you?” Hanzo replied as he sat on the bed as well.

“It’s ‘cause we love you!” Gabrielle exclaimed. “You work really hard! And you d’erve nice things, Papi! You’re a superhero and need to eat so you can save the world!”

McCree felt a squeeze in his chest and looked over at Hanzo.

“I told her a little about your last mission,” Hanzo said. 

“I got superhero dads,” Gabrielle went on with a bright smile. She let go of McCree’s hand and held a fork out for him. 

“You are the most wonderful thing in my life,” McCree told her. “Sorry, Han.”

Hanzo snorted and brushed his hair back. “I would not be lying if I said I felt similarly.”

A sharp, distant bark made all three look up. Hanzo sighed. “I will let Clint in. You, eat. You, make sure he eats.”

Gabrielle giggled as Hanzo stood and left.

“Good, he’s gone, now we can talk about him,” McCree said.

“I can still hear you!” Hanzo called.

McCree laughed and started eating. Hanzo’s cooking was always a delight. “He’s so grumpy. Don’t tell him I said that.”

She clapped a hand over her mouth. McCree winked at her and offered her a piece of bacon. 

“So yer Uncle Genji and Lucio are s’posed to be visiting next week,” he said. “Gotta make sure your room is nice and clean, okay?”

She nodded, looking excited. “Okay! I wanna-- I wanna go to the park with them! And have a tea party! And watch a movie!”

“I’m sure they’d be happy to,” he replied. “Maybe we can go see one at the theater. Hana’s in another movie, I’m sure she can get us some tickets to it.”

Gabrielle clapped her hands with an eager nod. “I wanna see her!”

“I’ll call her later, okay? And you can say hi.”

“Yay! She has cute whiskers! War paint! I wanna do too!” Gabrielle tapped her face.

“Tell you what, sweet pea, I’ll convince Hanzo to give up a little makeup, and we’ll give you some war paint whiskers like Hana today. Do you wanna wear the pink sweater to go with it, or the blue one?”

She shook her head. “Red sweater. We match! Pachan gotta wear red too!”

Her silly term for Hanzo, a mixture of “papa” with the affectionate Japanese suffix, always made McCree smile. “We can wear red today, sure. I think it’s your color.”

“Every color is her color,” Hanzo’s voice chimed in. He was entering the room with Clint at his heels, the dog’s ears pricked up and his nose already searching for snacks he wasn’t gonna get. 

“I get all the colors!” she cheered, throwing her hands up. “My rainbow!”

McCree smiled widely. “You can have all the colors you want.”

“You should share, though, sweet one,” Hanzo said as he put a hand on Clint’s face to keep him from jumping on the bed. “If only you have the colors, no one else can appreciate them.”

“You can have colors, too. I share.” She nodded, as if making up her mind. “And Uncle Genji and Lucy get green!”

“I’m sure they’ll be happy to know they can have the color green,” McCree told her. He pointed his fork accusingly at Hanzo when he snuck a slice of bacon off his plate. Hanzo stared him down as he took a bite.

“I can’t believe you would do this to me,” McCree said to him. “You thief.”

“You gotta share, Papi,” Gabrielle said, making both of them laugh. 

“You are an angel,” McCree told her. “Yer Pachan is a terrible influence on you. Don’t listen to him.”

“I am the terrible influence?” Hanzo crossed his arms and looked pointedly at McCree’s novelty cowboy tee shirt… one of many.  

“Don’t go knockin’ my fashion when yer stealin’ my clothes half the time,” McCree scolded, brushing his fingers along the flannel that didn’t quite fit Hanzo and definitely didn’t hide his tattoo. 

“It’s sharing,” Hanzo insisted.

Gabrielle giggled and flopped herself down in McCree’s lap. The two men grinned down at her. 

“Now what are you doin’, silly goose?” McCree asked as she grabbed his hand and traced her fingers across the blue lights and the skull motif. “That’s okay, don’t need my hand. Hanzo can--”

“No,” Hanzo replied. “I’m not feeding you.”

McCree stuck out his tongue at him. “Lame.”

“I wanna go to the park today!” Gabrielle announced. “And take Clint!”

“I think we can do that,” Hanzo agreed easily enough.

“And Soba!”

“Not that,” Hanzo said, making McCree cough as he laughed around a mouthful of eggs. “Soba is an indoor cat. She might run away if we take her outside. And since she is not our cat, we have to be careful to make sure she stays safe.”

Gabrielle nodded. “Okay!”

Clint whined from where he was laying on the floor. 

“Shhhhh,” Gabrielle said, leaning over the bed to wave her arm at the dog. He was too far for her to reach him, but she tried valiantly. “No people food! You’re a puppy!”

“He already ate breakfast too,” Hanzo said, giving McCree a pointed look.

“I wasn’t gonna give him anything!” McCree insisted. “I may spoil that dog, but I know how to make sure he ain’t eating anything he shouldn’t.”

Hanzo chuckled and ran his fingers through McCree’s hair. “I know. I saw your face. You hate it when he’s upset.”

“He’s a naughty little dog, begging for bacon he ain’t gonna get.”

“No bacon! Only for people! Not for Clint!”

McCree ruffled her hair. “Hey, sugar, why don’t you go pick out what you wanna wear today, okay? Did you guys eat already?”

She nodded and slid down off the bed before scampering off. Clint hopped up and followed her, his nails clicking on the floor.

McCree grabbed Hanzo by the collar and pulled him in for a real kiss. “You’re too damn good for me, darlin’,” he murmured into Hanzo’s lips. “God, what’d I do to deserve such a gorgeous family?”

Hanzo smiled and pressed their foreheads together. “You are a good man, Jesse McCree. A hero, indeed. Life should have given you a blessing like Gabrielle long ago. You are a wonderful father.”

“I’m glad she’s ours, Han. She couldn’t have better fathers in the whole world.”

“I am… afraid,” Hanzo suddenly said, voice dropping to a whisper. He pulled back slightly. “What will we tell her? When she is older?”

“About… her adoption? I’m pretty sure she can guess she’s adopted--”

“Not that.” Hanzo gripped McCree’s hands. “About us. About our pasts. She is going to find out.”

“Someday, but not today. Let her be a little kid. Let her have the childhood neither of us got. She don’t need to worry about her dads’ bein’ gang members and yakuza, and all the killin’. She’s a smart girl, and she knows how much we love her. Okay? In a couple years, when she’s mature enough to understand that sorta stuff, we can talk with her about it. We can even let Genji tell his side to her.”

Hanzo took a shaky breath and nodded. “It plagues me,” he confessed. “I worry so much about her. She is… honestly the most important thing in my life.”

McCree nodded and kissed Hanzo’s forehead. “I know. Me too. Never thought I’d be able to be a dad one day, y’know?”

“I had expected as much of myself, but I never viewed it the way that it actually feels. I thought it would be like the relationship between myself and my father. But this… I would die for her. Kill for her.”

“Let’s hope it don’t come to either of those things,” McCree said. “We can be a relatively normal, happy family. No power-hungry omnics, no Talon, none of that anymore. Our biggest concern is gonna be helpin’ her get through preschool and hopin’ you don’t end up fightin’ those soccer moms at the PTA meetings.”

Hanzo laughed and buried his face in McCree’s shoulder. “Why do you assume I would?”

“You’re fighty and stubborn,” McCree said. “I like that about you, though. You don’t back down and you’ve saved my life more times than I can count. I’ll make sure you don’t get into too much trouble.”

“You’re terrible.”

“I love you.”

“ _ Ai shitemasu yo _ . Even if you are an asshole.”

McCree smiled. Always formal, and always stubborn, even in intimacy. Hanzo rarely dropped that particular phrase on him. Not the calling him an asshole, that happened pretty much daily.

Somehow, hearing the declaration of love in Hanzo’s mother tongue always felt like a special moment. Even when he was being insulted immediately after. The English softened it.

McCree kissed him again. 

The sound of excited toddler feet broke them apart as Gabrielle came running into the room with a bundle of clothes in her arms and the dog behind her. She jumped up to dump her clothes on the bed. “Red!”

“Yes, ma’am, that’s red,” McCree agreed. “Made your decision? It’s a red day?”

She nodded.

Hanzo gave McCree a peck on the cheek and stood. “I am going to shower,” he said. “If you will help her dress, and then I will take care of the dishes.”

“Sure thing, honeybee. Don’t use up all the hot water.”

Hanzo rolled his eyes and gave Gabrielle a kiss on the top of her head. “Listen to your father,” he said. “Do not go running off in your underthings again.”

She giggled. “Okay, Pachan.”

McCree finished the last sip of his coffee and stood up to help Gabrielle get dressed. She was certainly getting better at it on her own, but she was still three. 

“Atta girl, good job with the buttons,” he praised. He sat her up on the bed and helped tie her shoes on. “Sure you don’t want cowboy boots like your Papi?”

She shook her head with a laugh. “No! You’re silly!”

“Sure am, Gab. Do what you’re best at, right?” He scooped her up in his arms and she squealed in delight as he spun her around. “I bet we can convince Pachan to let us get ice cream later, right?”

Gabrielle gasped. “Yeah! Ice cream!”

“Shh,” he warned, grinning. “We gotta soften him up first. If we find a place that sells matcha ice cream, he sure won’t say no.” He sat down and picked up his tablet. “Let’s look for one together, okay? And then you bust out the puppy eyes.”

She tilted her head and made her eyes wide, a little pout on her face. McCree laughed. “That’s the one, angel. You’re a natural. You got him all wrapped around your little finger.” 

He was, as well, of course. But he wouldn’t tell her that.

By the time the pair (mostly McCree, with Gabrielle putting little fingerprints on the screen) found an ice cream place, Hanzo was coming out of the bathroom, dressed in his own clothes and tying up his hair. McCree set aside his tablet and passed Gabrielle to him. 

“This is yours for a little bit,” he said. “I’ll shower now. Hey, Gabrielle, didn’t you say somethin’ earlier about war paint?”

“War paint?” Hanzo asked in confusion.

Gabrielle cheered. “Like Hana!”

McCree laughed at Hanzo’s expression and started for the bathroom. “Don’t go too crazy without me.”

When he showered, the hot water wasn’t washing away the dust and stress of hard, long, painful days anymore. It wasn’t flushing blood and sins down the drain anymore. He hummed in the steam, took his time, with no worry of being caught unarmed, of running out of hot water, no time sensitive mission with lives on the line. The only plans he had were for a lazy day at the park and an ice cream date with his husband, his daughter, and his dog. 

He thought about the red he used to wash from his body, from broken noses and bullet wounds. The red of Genji’s eyes years ago, the red of the lonely desert, the red that stained too many shirts. He thought about Gabrielle, so cheerful with her red sweater, insisting that Hanzo wear a red shirt to match, that McCree wear the red plaid that Hanzo liked best on him. Red was different now. A lot of things were.

He wondered what his past self would think if he knew how his life would turn out, and then decided it didn’t matter.

McCree was happy. That was what mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> you cant tell me mccree wouldnt name his dog clint eastwood
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at rage-quitter!


End file.
